About Image

Daily Reading

He Was Manifested

View daily reading plan: 1 John 3.2-6

“He shall be manifested” (v.2, RV). “He was manifested” (v.5).

We understand that “now are we the sons of God”, but the complete details of our future state are “not yet made manifest” (v.2, RV). One thing is clear, when He is manifested to His own as in 2.28, “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is”. In this context “he is pure” (v.3), “in him is no sin” (v.5), and we shall be like Him with every trace of imperfection gone.

We have hope in Him (v.3), and the prospect of being like Him when He appears should make us keen to be more like Him here and now. We will never have the absolute purity that characterises Him, but we do have a duty to purify ourselves. May God enable us all to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7.1).

Believers are those who have experienced the removal of their sins (v.5). He was “manifested” was to “take away our sins” and he was perfectly equipped to undertake that task for “in him is no sin”. His sinless life could never have saved us, but it was a necessary prerequisite for His atoning death. Those who are the beneficiaries of that sacrifice, and who abide in Him, demonstrate it by the absence of routine sinning; those for whom sinning is normal have never “seen him” or “known him” in a saving sense (v.6).

Tuesday, 7 May, 2024

Get the daily readings emailed to you